This page is a bit different from the others. I'm combining two areas & multiple climbs over 2 weekends with my friend Emma. Emma was my trad mom and truly intoduced me to trad and multipitch outside. I am super grateful!
I'm still updating this page, but I'll list the climbs we did. I followed all of the pitches!
Saturday Oct 10th 2021
The Roof aka The Corner 5.8
They Died Laughing 5.9: Emma's take: " Lovely hand crack. Foot popped midway on a layback and took a fall. W/ Alejandro, Suzy, Angie"
Recompense 5.9—3 pitches 400ft:
We got lost looking for the start and went too far left. Eventually when we did find it the sun was already going down. We got up the first pitch and took a break to decide if we wanted to finish or rappel down. Emma was being pragmatic and saying we should probably go down, but that she was willing to climb in the dark and felt confident. I could see she had that sparkle in her eye though and it was infectious.
So we pushed on and did p2 and p3 in the dark with our headlamps. We both stayed focus and in control and did everything clean. At the end Emma even added in a harder 5.10 finger crack variation without telling me. I was sweating and trying hard at the end hahaha.
When I got to the top she told me I had just done 5.10 with a smirk on her face. "I knew it!" I said, "That felt soooo much harder—the holds just disappeared." Then we rested a bit at the top and then walked off the summit back to our cars. What a great day!
Saturday Nov 6th 2021
Son of Easy O 5.8 2 pitches
MF 5.9: Just did the first pitch and it was a solid climb. Emma climbed it clean.
Sunday Nov 7th 2021
Higher Stannard 5.9- 1 long pitch link into the Dangler. The bottom was a bit run out and route finding was complicated to get onto the end of Something Interesting before the Dangler
Dangler 5.10a: Oh man this was a workout. In retrospect maybe I could've flipped my right arm into a push at some point to make standing on the ledge easier. But oh my, with all the gear Emma left behind and the follower pack it was crazy hard to pull myself up over the lip. But once I got the lip it was smooth sailing!
Emma's take: "Roof gear: Red #1 totem, green .75 totem, #3 BD cam, orange #2 totem. Pumped out while placing #2 at lip and took on #3. Climbed the rest clean. Alejandro followed with a follower pack and most of the rack, fell at the lip and lowered off once. Did it clean. Bring extra mediums to small gear for above the roof. Had to run out sections because I ran out of gear. GT ledge anchor takes only hand and fist sized cams .75-2. Lead Higher Stannard into Something Interesting to get to the GT Ledge. Tree Belay at the top of Dangler."